Ground Control
by Deko-Ni
Summary: Keith is faced with several challenges after Shiro's sudden disappearance. Between formulating new bonds and leading the team, a few other things begin to arise; somethings that might be a bit more 'alien' than anticipated.
1. Chapter 1

Zarkon had been destroyed at last; his empire had fallen. But the Paladins of Voltron were far from celebration. Shiro, their team leader, had disappeared so suddenly and without warning; none of them could have foreseen it. And the impossible feat of vanishing in the middle of space and having not a single presence on his lion was incomprehensible. The black lion was pilotless and the remaining Paladins were more than overwhelmed.

On the bridge, the remaining group was spread out, silently and nervously moving about.

Pidge, Lance, and Hunk sat on the floor, their legs crossed mirror-like, one of them nervously twiddling their fingers.

Allura and Coran standing side by side, both looking equally troubled.

Keith sat alone, his assigned seat creaking softly as he rocked back and forth.

"I was left in charge of Voltron. Shiro told me so before...well..." The red Paladin shuffled his feet.

A soft voice spoke behind him, not daring to speak any louder. "Before he disappeared." It was Pidge. Straight to the point, but still aware of the heavy situation.

"Wait, wait. Hang on. I thought we defeated Zarkon?" The blue Paladin could hold his tongue back no longer. So many questions swirled in his head. "Why does Keith need to be leader if the Galra empire was destroyed?"

"Zarkon may have been put to an end, but there are still conspirators. There are still people who will need our help." Allura had been fazed just as Keith by the entire situation. She and the red Paladin had kept silent the entirety of the time the rest attempted to manage and assess what had exactly happened.

Shiro vanished, Zarkon was defeated and the Paladins were left with an unforeseeable future.

They planned to keep Voltron active, but only at the word of Keith. He felt obligated now to lead the team. He was left with a purpose he felt he needed to fulfill.

Now, one problem to face was the question of returning to Earth. Keith took a breath, finally coming to a conclusion. "As much as you might not like it guys, home is just going to have to wait."

And, suddenly, Lance was more than eager to fight; no longer mourning the disappearance of their leader. "Do you even know what home is? I have a family, Keith! A mom, brothers, sisters... I have something I need to get back to. All of us do, we can't just continue to sit here and wait for something that might not even come-"

"Lance!" The red Paladin had lost his patience. "You know as well as I do who we are. Just as you said, Zarkon still has a chance of coming back."

"Hey, Keith, he just meant to say-" Hunk tried, finally sitting up from his slouched position.

Keith only raised his voice, blood boiling to an unnatural level. His entire body shook with rage, yet his eyes watered incredibly so. "We are Voltron, defenders of the universe and its only hope! Haggar is still out there, right princess?"

Unable to give a verbal response, Allura nodded solemnly.

"We need to stay focused. We are a team and we can't be breaking up now. Every innocent planet needs us and we have to be ready. If Haggar is still alive, then so are those willing to do anything in the name of Zarkon. Earth...will just have to wait a little longer." His voice cracked, the emotion pouring out at last.

An uncomfortable silence remained stagnant in the air. All Paladins along with the two remaining Alteans spoke not a word. What Keith said was true. They couldn't give up with little evidence that the universe was safe. Sad to say, there would always be another force waiting to attack when it was most vulnerable. Terrors would still arise.

"Now I can see why Shiro chose mullet to lead the group." Lance broke the tense atmosphere, earning several flitting smirks from the rest. It was sometimes best to use humor in serious situations.

"Yeah." Keith tiredly wiped at his damp eyes.

"Either way, Keith's right." Pidge supplied. "Sitting and waiting might not be the greatest thing to do, but it's better than getting attacked back on Earth, completely defenseless. The galaxy's still going to need us."

The yellow Paladin nodded. "Yeah, and while we do that we can go ahead and, you know, look for Pidge's family."

Pidge looked up excitedly, eyes wide in response. "W-we could do that."

The team agreed as a whole, relief finally washing over their exhausted brains.

Allura, for one, stood up and straightened into royal form; head held high. "Paladins, tomorrow is a new day. We will rest for now and figure out later what the future will have in store. Sleep well." The princess turned from the Voltron members who gave their own goodnight's and headed away from the castle's control room, Coran following behind.

"Sleep tight," he called before exiting as well.

The Paladins continued to sit, too quiet and much too tired to move. None of them were comfortable, though. Their seats hard and rock-like.

Keith spoke first, his body too weak to move anymore. "Go ahead, guys." He responded tiredly. "I'll be down in a moment."

The other Paladins froze, unsure how to reply until Lance himself took the lead. "Alright, cool. Well, I'm beat." To emphasize, he let out a yawn. "We're probably gonna have to get up early tomorrow."

The others stood finally, tiredly making their way to the exit.

"And Keith," Lance called, "don't stay in the bridge too long."

Said Paladin stared after them, confusion written all across his face. If he didn't think too much, Lance had almost seemed concerned.

But he didn't need anyone's concern. If he was going to be leader, he needed his head turned straight. The mere idea of the next few days was absolutely chaotic.

With an agitated sigh, Keith dropped his head into his hands, unconsciously tapping his foot to the beat of a song who's origin he knew came from Earth.

"...I'm stepping through the dark..." his voice rose no higher than a whisper, trying as best he could to contain his emotions. "... and I'm floating in a most peculiar way..."

Finally, he raised himself from his seat, trying his best not to glance at the oddly empty one previously belonging to Shiro, and headed directly for the closed door of the bridge.

The heavy metal swished open. The moment he had stepped out of the room, the lights gave out to the dimness of night. Keith was more than thankful the source of his turmoil was in a shadow behind him, the castle almost seeming to know exactly what the red Paladin wanted.


	2. Chapter 2

By the time he had awoken, the ship was in full gear. Its night glowing lights replaced to the brightest. The white lights only visible since they seeped in through the bottom of the red Paladin's door and into the darkness of his room. It was late, from what he could tell, too late to still be sleeping in if the voices from outside were of any value.

Perhaps "sleeping in" was the wrong term considering Keith hadn't slept at all. His very thoughts, even the insides of his lids when he did close his eyes, we're plagued with nightmarish visions.

His head swam in all the possible outcomes. All the outcomes of where in the world Shiro had gone to. Or if he was even alive at all.

Shiro had known- must've had a clue long before that he could leave Voltron's command to Keith. Why else would he have, on several occasions, mentioned becoming leader if his disappearance hadn't become reality.

Keith, still laying in bed with his eyes towards the roof, furrowed his brows. "Why me?" He couldn't help but mumble this to himself as he'd done for several hours on end.

Why did Shiro choose Keith? He hoped, oh how he hoped it wasn't only because they knew each other well enough for the black Paladin to feel as though Keith could be trusted.

With a heavy sigh, he stood, throwing his blankets across the bed; not caring in the least whether he left a mess or not.

The castle, seemingly realizing the red Paladin was awake,turned the rooms lights to their brightest setting to which Keith automatically shut his eyes. With a huff, he grabbed his jacket, quickly throwing it on before creeping out of the room. He, in no way whatsoever, felt the need to alert the other Paladins of his presence.

For a moment, the castle was oddly silent; giving way only to the general soft humming it normally made. The voices, the shouting from earlier had apparently vanished; retreating into the lower deck of the ship.

whatever time it was, breakfast- or possibly lunch?- was already being served.

From the smells wafting upwards, whoever was cooking had somehow started a fire. Somehow.

Keith, again, couldn't help but to sigh. He hoped that in some way the day would get by smoothly. As smoothly as he could anticipate over the sounds of Lance's and Hunk's sudden shouting. The red Paladin thanked whoever was listening that he was nowhere near the two.

It only took another moment before he gathers his bearings, before he wiped the sleep from his eyes and headed downstairs. Almost like a torrent of sound, voices pushed past the open kitchen door and out into the rest of the castle.

Oddly enough, Him wasn't near anything that could be deemed a kitchen appliance, but rather Lance was. He was crawling hid way over the larger Paladin with a towel vigorously flinging back and forth. The towel was home to a magnitude of flickering flames.

"Lance, hold still will you?" Hunk all but yelled.

"I'm trying!" Said Paladin had jumped to his feet, whipping at the towel in an intense manner. The flames hardly flickered from existence; only seeming to get much more violent. "Hunk- it's not going out! Why doesn't this castle have a fire extinguisher?" He held the towel out and far from his face. "A particle barrier, Altean upside down pool, _huge_ ass lion robots, but no extinguisher."

Keith continued to watch from his place at the door, arms down by his sides, back straight, and face taut. Pidge in the corner; collectively typing away at her computer, taking no notice of what was going on, only seemed to fuel his growing rage.

"Agh!"

The blue Paladin's screech snapped Keith out of his reverie. In a single stride, he was across the room, shoving Hunk to the side- he was trying to calm the panicking Lance- and roughly grabbed hold of the wrist holding the smoldering towel.

They met eyes for a brief moment. The look in the red Paladin's startling Lance so much that he was completely unaware of the other hand shaking its way for the towel. Swiftly, the towel was snatched and dropped to the floor when a booted door stomped at it. The flames finally gave out.

The room was a mixture of silent relief and calm at the danger that was no longer evident. Though, Keith could've thought differently. From the sudden burst of laughter emitted from Hunk to the silent chuckling that was Pidge, the red Paladin felt a sudden unforgiving sense of loss. And when Lance had smoked then, only a smirk, Keith's own relative protection from emotions shattered.

Then he was there, a face in the background. His defining scar across the bridge of his nose. He only stood there, though, with his all-loving, all-caring smile. It was a smile that could move planets and create tectonic shifts. It was something Keith wished he'd be able to see again, in the real world, not just another crazy hallucination his brain was able to manifest. And, he had this sinking feeling, that he might never be able to see that again.

He was dimly aware of the _living_ , _breathing_ figure before him. The one with the short brown hair and the god awful annoying sense of humor. But whatever would get his mind off of Shiro, he was thankful for it.

"Hey, dude."

The voice broke through his foggy brain at last.

"You alright, man?"

He was going to give a snarky remark, something about keeping his nose out of things that had nothing to do with him, but couldn't bring himself to muster up a response. He was out of words and the only thing he could do was nod mutely.

The expression Lance wore was lacking his usual humor, concern was the only think lining his features.

 _Is he concerned...about me?_

He would've pondered more, but interruption quickly followed. Coran had just as nearly toppled over the short Pidge with his frantic run into the room. With a panicked voice he called, "Is anyone hurt? What's with all the yelling? Was there a fire in here?"

Hunk took this as his initiative to right the fallen green Paladin and cool the Altean's quick questions.

Keith immediately turned from the group, calling out a mumbled, "I'll be in the training deck," and escaping just as quickly. A glance back, and he was offered one last look from Lance before the door shut behind him.

 **To those who have followed, favorites, and/ or reviewed, I highly appreciate it.** **I've decided to try something new with a truly amazing fandom. and show.** **While season 2 may have left off with several questions, I've deemed it my brains creativity to form my own version of how I feel Voltron will go.** **After this point: angst galore, action, violence, and severe acts of angry swearing will proceed.** **Thank you for the feedback, I'll be happy to hear any concerns or thoughts in the future (*︶*)**


	3. Chapter 3

Keith drew out a heaving breath. He'd lost it, he'd completely and utterly lost it in front of the team he was supposed to be leading! Leading, not only acting out ruthlessly with so little as talking to the other Paladins.

He knew he'd have to talk to them, discuss the game plan and... the loss of Shiro. He talked just a bit yesterday in the thick of despair and exhaustion, but that was hardly enough. They needed to work out their next plan of action. Or, in reality, get over what happened to the black Paladin. Really, it was mostly Keith that needed to get over it.

Seeing images of Shiro in his head... that wasn't a good sign. At all.

Now the main problem they were facing was figuring out how they would form Voltron. That was the first step into making any progress in their new arrangements.

Keith closed his eyes, allowing his hands to graze the wall and lead him to the all too familiar path. He'd headed this route so many times now, he wouldn't be surprised if he'd followed it while sleep walking.

The black lion was pilotless. He'd been able to control it himself once, but would he be able to again? Would it even accept him after fighting so hard for its previous pilot?

With a final sign, he realized he'd been sighing a lot, he continued on his way to the training deck.

Taking a mental note to have a meal later, Keith threw down his jacket towards one corner of the room. His voice rang out in an echo-like manner the moment he spoke. "Begin training level 6!"

A simple enough level if he considered just beating Zarkon only a day ago. The last time he had trained on the deck, level 3 was barely visualized as 'complete'.

The red Paladin had really only defeated the Altean robot once its back had turned, a clear sign of a fatal mistake in its programming. He wasn't going to tell the rest of the team he'd won by a fluke, though. Let them believe what they wanted. If he had to put it into a level, he'd rate defeating the Galra race at a 4, anyway. How bad could a 6 be?

By the time the whooshing of a door sounded along with metal clanking, he began regretting his decision.

The robot was no different in appearance, but an almost menacing aura could be felt. It permeated the room in a thick fog, so strong that Keith almost felt the urge to cover his nose and run out of the room.

But he wouldn't. In every sense of the word fear, he'd not back down even as the feeling washed over his every nerve like a tidal wave of nausea. The Altean training bot was a measly piece of metal with arms and legs and a weapon or two. It held no conscience and should therefore be an even easier kill than most with a working brain. If Keith could defeat this pre-planned robot, whatever else the universe planned on throwing at them could hardly be as easy.

The universe was huge, a mass beyond recognition. An entirely new fleet of Galran soldiers could be right there, under their noses. For that, Keith and the other pilots needed preparation like no other.

Straying from his thoughts, Keith backed up a few steps as the robot drew nearer. It's arms drew wide circles around itself in a threatening manner; not to mention the blades it wielded in each as well. It's stance gave reassurance that it was programmed both for offense and defense in such a way the red Paladin had never seen before.

"Alright," Keith mumbled, "Let's do this."

The bot flung itself at him from across the room within moments.

Keith had been able to pull himself to his feet just before its blade had swung down at him, only barely nicking his side as he rolled away.

'Okay. This is going to be harder than I thought...'

The robot retaliated it's attack, catching it's balance once more and leaping back at where the Paladin now stood. It's movements were quick and nearly difficult to calculate. Truly, a splendid piece of equipment as Pidge would say.

Keith had only just enough time to strike at the bot with his sword in as quick a motion as ever once it'd landed deathly near him just as he spun from its well aimed blow. He was panting already, only after nearly a few seconds of leaping from a killer robot. If he had to, Keith would blame having recently fought and defeated the Galran race literally several hours ago, getting no sleep, and not even having breakfast or any sustenance at all for the past day. Sure, he could blame all of the facts, but he wouldn't. Not even mentioning the emotional drain of losing the closest connection he'd ever had.

He was a mess in all honesty.

The robot, though, thought it best not to give him a breather.

It'd followed him once again in a few swift motions. Its blade swung widely around where Keith found it impossible to figure its path on where it planned to strike next.

By the time he even came up with the coherent thought to 'hey, maybe I should stop this thing before it kills me,' he was covered in cuts and bruises all over his body and face. It wasn't his voice that ended the training session either. Apparently Lance showed up in the nick of time to stop the bot before anything worse happened.

Though Keith was extremely thankful for the intrusion,he wouldn't show it. In his eyes, the blue Paladin had overstepped his boundaries and interrupted the only source of release Keith had.

"Keith, buddy, you good?" Lance spoke up, his voice laced with concern. He'd taken it upon himself to step forward where the red Paladin was still crouched, gasping for air and sweating from exhaustion.

Keith growled, losing his nerve. Finally looking up and glaring into the other's eyes. "Lance, I'm going to kill you."

* * *

 **So, sorry for the delay. I've been super busy with school and everything, but I had the time to get this written up now.**

 **I've got a ton of plans for this fic and don't want to give up yet.**

 **Thanks if you enjoyed and don't forget to drop a review!**


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